ABLETT
,
NOAH
(
1883
-
1935
),
miner and Trade Union leader
.

Born at
Porth
,
Rhondda
,
4 Oct. 1883
, son of
John
and
JaneAblett
. As a
miner
, he went for a period to the
Central Labour College
; he then became a
checkweigher
at
Maerdy
. He was elected a member of the
Executive Committee of the South Wales Miners' Federation
in
Jan. 1911
, and subsequently a
member of the executive
of the
Miners' Federation of Great Britain
. In
1918
he was appointed a
Miners' Agent
at
Merthyr Tydfil
, a post he held until his death.

Ablett
's importance in the history of
Trade Unionism
in
South Wales
is twofold: he was one of the
leaders of the opposition
to the older
miners’ leaders
like
WilliamAbraham
(
Mabon
)
, and he became a
propagandist for Syndicalist and Marxist ideas among the miners
. Others had opposed
Mabon
before
Ablett
, and as a result had organised one union, the
South Wales Miners' Federation
, to take the place of the many small local unions; they had also ended the
Sliding Scale agreement
negotiated by
Mabon
which had controlled miners’ wages from
1875 to 1903
. Their opposition was based on principles of trade union organisation and interests.
Ablett
on the other hand based his opposition on his view that there was an irreconcilable conflict between the owners and workers in a capitalist society. He opposed any move to conciliate or compromise with the owners and called for the use of the strike not merely for improvement in the lot of the worker but to eliminate the owners altogether. To this end he
advocated general strikes
to foment a spirit of class warfare.

He first became prominent in the violent and bitter dispute in the
Rhondda
when there was a strike in the pits owned by the
Cambrian Combine
, to establish a guaranteed minimum wage. The strike lasted from
Oct. 1910 to Sept. 1911
. Rioting broke out and additional police forces and detachments of troops were sent into the valley.
Ablett
issued a manifesto to the
miners
in favour of a general strike, and opposed accepting the terms of the owners. But after the hardships of the eleven months' stoppage the
Trade Union
recommended their acceptance.
Ablett
, with others like
A. J.Cook
, formed an unofficial committee which issued a pamphlet called
The Miners’ Next Step
. This had been drafted by
Ablett
and is notable for its mixture of
Syndicalism
and
Marxism
. It contains a plea for the formation of one vast industrial union, and advocates workers’ control and ownership of industry. It had a large sale and provoked intense discussion in the industrial areas of the country.
Ablett
also wrote a number of articles for the
Plebs
magazine, the journal of the
Labour College
, and a book
Easy Outlines of Economics
. He was usually a lone dissenter on the Councils
of the Union, which had adopted nationalisation of the mines as its policy rather than
Ablett
's
Syndicalism
.

He m.
AnnHowells
in
1912
; they had two children. He d.
31 Oct. 1935
at
Merthyr Tydfil
.

Sources:

David Evans
,
Labour Strife in the South Wales Coalfield,
1910-11 A historical and critical record of the
Mid-Rhondda, Aberdare Valley, and other strikes
,
Cardiff, 1911
;